The final edition of RT’s “The Alyona Show” hosted by Alyona Minkovski aired today. Alyona is going to Los Angeles to join HuffPost Live, a video network set to launch August 13. As the show picks up and heads cross-country, I would like to take a moment to share a few memories about a program that I will never forget.

PBS had just aired FRONTLINE‘s “WikiSecrets” documentary. I published a scathing review of the production. At the time, I was an intern for The Nation magazine. I received a request that day, the first request in my life, to appear on television. I asked my supervisor if I could leave the office early because I had gotten an interview request. It was one of the most validating moments. (Watch the interview here.)

Over the next year, I would appear just about every other month on the program. I wrote about one of the appearances in the book I co-authored with The Nation‘s Greg Mitchell, Truth & Consequences: The US vs. Bradley Manning. In December 2011, I was covering Pfc. Bradley Manning’s pre-trial hearing, before the charges against him had been referred to a court martial. I drove Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower known for publishing the Pentagon Papers, from Fort Meade, Maryland, to Washington, DC, for a segment where we both appeared together.

I needed to give Ellsberg a ride into DC and, knowing how awkward it would be to take Ellsberg to my appearance and not have him go on camera, I asked a producer if Alyona would like to have Ellsberg and I on at the same time. And, during the segment, there was a great moment when Ellsberg stopped the conversation to interject that he thought I looked like Manning. (I don’t know if I would agree, though it did give me a good laugh.)

The show gave me a platform and experience doing television when I had none, and I am sure that my first appearance was not unique. A number of people wrote blog posts while the show was on air and were contacted by producers and given a chance to share their perspectives on TV. That is because, unlike many other news programs, the show did not really rely on a cadre of people that it always turned to for commentary on stories. It invited people who were actually doing the reporting or writing and had done coverage—the work—to come on the show and share their viewpoint.

Aside from the attention given to stories that corporate or establishment media would never touch, “The Alyona Show” was remarkable because, on every other show, one was likely to see someone they had never seen on TV before. It gave the show a grassroots spirit and made the show authentic. It complemented Alyona’s ability to expertly interview a person and get to the root of an issue being discussed on the show.

While there will certainly be regulars on the program when it resumes on HuffPost Live, I hope that “The Alyona Show” continues to invite people who write posts that happen to cover a story in a better way than any individual you may have seen on the show before.

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Both FDL editor-in-chief Jane Hamsher and Salon’s Glenn Greenwald appeared on the final edition of the show. Here’s their appearance:

26 Responses
to “A Farewell to RT’s ‘The Alyona Show’”

Four of my favorite journalist, bloggers people all in one program: Kevin Gosztola, Jane Hamsher, Alyona Minkovski and Glenn Greenwald! Enjoyed each of the videos, Kevin and your blog post. Fine work! Also I have to add that I’m envious and jealous that you’ve been able to meet and speak with Alyona. I’m not sure that I would be as composed as you seem to be in the videos if I were speaking with her. ;o)

I hate to see her go as I watch her show on a regular basis. I have been cheerleading her show to many of my friends as a show that is hard hitting and does not pull punches. Hopefully RT will continue to provide simliar shows. Good luck to Alyona and I am sure she will have a same edge going forward….

This really sucks. The Alyona Show was the one TV show that gave the the anti-war side a fair shake. It was also the only show that gave the Palestinians and Wikileaks a fair shake. You won’t get any of that from Huffington Post, a site that maniacally censors anything that isn’t AIPAC-approved.

For a good example of the standards of the Huffington Post, keep in mind that the tabloid runs regular columns by pedophile apologists Bernard Henri-Levy and Alan Dershowitz, both of whom told the most despicable lies on behalf of convicted child molesters (Roman Polanski and Jeffrey Epstein). Try pointing this out on the site and your post will never see the light of day, nor will any post that calls out the celebrity morons like Jim Carrey, who still peddles the polio vaccines = autism hysteria.

Huffington Post is a site of bullshitters, cranks and starfuckers and it’s a shame Alyona Minkovski is ending her show to join them.

It’s an almost unbelievably dismal situation. When was the last time that there were meaningful consequences for police brutality? This is the shape of the future: Power does whatever it wants to do, and we shut up and take it.
Locally, a cop who had been fired for use of excessive force–he yanked a female speeder out of her car and threw her to the ground, shrieking at the top of his lungs the whole time–was given his job back by the city council. One council member appeared on the news and offered a ludicrous but familiar rationale for the decision: “our” police officers put their lives on the line every day, so “we” don’t want to deprive them of their livelihood. Because, you know, the fact that these guys are at risk of physical harm justifies absolutely any action they take, even if it’s brutal and totally unnecessary and even if there’s a public outcry, and we just aren’t going to discuss it any further. Period. (It’s like what Jane said in the clip about the lack of Bradley Manning coverage: the media totally understands that people want to hear about this story, but responds with a big, fat “HELL, NO, we’re not gonna touch it, so go away!”) The cop had already been written up for previous use of excessive force, by the way, so now he’s free to go out and do it a third time.
It’s the same rot we hear whenever we criticize the military, be it individual troops who take the lives of innocent people in other countries or the apparatus. Because (and this is continually reinforced by the media, and by peer pressure within our muddled, fearful culture itself) criticizing the apparatus is the same as criticizing “our heroes” and their mission to “protect freedom”. If they can silence virtually all criticism not only of specific incidents and individuals (and ensure that those individuals face no consequences for their actions) but of the very concepts of endless war and paramilitarized police forces, they win.

I did not know that Irina Rodnina was Alyona’s mother! Alyona is a skilled journalist and interviewer and I’m sad her show is ending. I don’t have any respect for HuffPost, so I’m also sad that that’s where she’s headed.

Kevin, thanks for sharing a look back at your experiences with Alyona.

The proof will be in what Alyona covers in her new surroundings. If she is allowed to continue to champion the things that made her a “rising star”, then it will be a case of them jumping on her bandwagon in an attempt to cash in on her popularity. If her work is significantly different, and not in a good way, then she will have gone from being part of the solution to being part of the problem. Arianna herself has gone back & forth – problem, solution, bigger problem.